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Hello. I am an US ARMY soldier serving in Iraq. I recently began work in a detention facility. We are not allowed to use weapons in the facility for the safety of the detainees and ourselves. We have been briefly trained in Aikido and must become proficient in this within a certain timeframe. ( I cannot say when)

I am wondering if there are members of your organization who would consider supporting me with training materials they no longer need.

I have never done this before. I would really like to have, for my own safety some books, DVDs or VHS tapes on the basics of this.

We especially were asked to focus on non weapons- Techniques on Small joint manipulation, Controlling opponents.

I don't care if it is new or used- anything will help me.

I realize that many of you have spent years learning this art- however we have no choice in the matter. We must do our best to learn fast.
I believe the style we have been taught is Shokodan (sp?)

I'd suggest looking around over there, too. One of our black belts is a Marine doing security duty somewhere.
It might be worth finding out if any personnel in the surrounding camps have any aikido experience (Shodokan or otherwise) and setting up some training with them.
If I can find out a little more about where our guy is, or at least the unit he is with, I'll post that here.

Hello. I am an US ARMY soldier serving in Iraq. I recently began work in a detention facility. We are not allowed to use weapons in the facility for the safety of the detainees and ourselves. We have been briefly trained in Aikido and must become proficient in this within a certain timeframe. ( I cannot say when)

I am wondering if there are members of your organization who would consider supporting me with training materials they no longer need.

I have never done this before. I would really like to have, for my own safety some books, DVDs or VHS tapes on the basics of this.

We especially were asked to focus on non weapons- Techniques on Small joint manipulation, Controlling opponents.

I don't care if it is new or used- anything will help me.

I realize that many of you have spent years learning this art- however we have no choice in the matter. We must do our best to learn fast.
I believe the style we have been taught is Shokodan (sp?)

Thank you for considering this request.

SSG Phelps

PS I am on the right in the picture.
Operation Iraqi Freedom

I have some useful stuff on a CD in PowerPoint (you don't need PowerPoint to watch it just a PC), give me an address and I'll shoot it of to you. Write to: George at dtoptions@aikieast.com

I'd suggest looking around over there, too. One of our black belts is a Marine doing security duty somewhere.
It might be worth finding out if any personnel in the surrounding camps have any aikido experience (Shodokan or otherwise) and setting up some training with them.
If I can find out a little more about where our guy is, or at least the unit he is with, I'll post that here.

Best of luck!

Thanks Jon,
We're not allowed to do too much traveling, what with the hazards of the roads and all, but that is an excellent idea if I could get in touch.
Thanks for looking into that!

Thank you one and all who responded to this post- I really appreciate your willingness to help out a soldier in need.

You all have been most generous and your kindness is somethign I will never forget. I will do my best to contact you when the materials arrive and let you know how it's going for me. Perhaps I may even want to pursue this when I return to my "real life".
Until then, I thank you all again.
Respectfully,
SSG Phelps
Chris

We are still learning as many Aikido Techniques as we can get sent over here. It is the End of November 2004 Here in Iraq. If you have what you consider old stuff or media that you think might be useful to us out here in Iraq send it here we will use it. We have a big group of Soldiers who are still in need of many resources you might have just sitting around or what you have already mastered. Our Mail address is (SSG Christopher Phelps -Eco 312th MI BN, 1CD- APO AE 09344) Many of you have sent some books, and DVDs this really does help. So if you don't need it - send it out here. (we have a Training room with a DVD & VHS player T.V. we can also hook up a laptop to the TV through S-video cable)
Thank you.

SSG Christopher Phelps U.S. Army (Pain is just weakness~Leaving the Body)